1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device using an electron-emitting film, a method of manufacturing an electron source including a large number of electron-emitting devices, and a method of manufacturing an image display apparatus including a large number of electron-emitting devices.
2. Related Background Art
An electron-emitting device includes a field emission type (FE-type) electron-emitting device, an MIM type electron-emitting device, and a surface conduction electron-emitting device. With respect to the FE-type, there is a configuration which is called a spindt type, in which an opening is formed in a gate electrode and a metallic member is tapered (formed in a cone shape) in the opening. In addition, there is a configuration in which electrons are emitted from a relatively flat diamond thin film (electron-emitting film) located in an opening as disclosed in JP 08-096703 A or the like.
As an application apparatus using those electron-emitting devices, there is, for example, a flat panel display in which the multiple electron-emitting devices described above are arranged on the same substrate. When a large number of electron-emitting devices to be utilized are arranged as in the flat panel display, it is important to set electron-emitting characteristics (in particular, voltage-current characteristics) of the respective electron-emitting devices uniform.
Therefore, with respect to an example using the spindt type electron-emitting device, a method of equalizing curvatures of the tips of respective emitters using electric field evaporation is disclosed in JP 3094459 B. With respect to an example using the surface conduction electron-emitting device, a method of uniformalizing characteristics of respective electron-emitting devices by applying a voltage to each of the electron-emitting devices after the completion of an operation which is called “activation process” is disclosed in JP 3062987 B.
An electron-emitting device using a diamond having negative electron affinity as an electron-emitting member is disclosed in JP 09-199001 A, U.S. Pat. No. 5283501 B, U.S. Pat. No. 5180951 B, and V. V. Zhinov, J. Liu, et al., “Environmental effect on the electron emission from diamond surfaces”, J. Vac. Sci. Technol., B16(3), May/June 1998, pp.1188-1193).